Psych 202 Lecture April 7 2015 Social Psychology and the Criminal Justice System o Stanford Prison Experiment o Iraq Abu Ghraib o U S Prisons o False Confessions Zimbardo s Stanford Prison Study people started taking on their social roles dehumanization de individuation The Stanford Prison Study The Power of the Situation videoclip o Students become deindividualized with sunglasses that made you unable to see their eyes the same uniforms o Prisoners rebelled against having to follow orders from other students Similarities between Stanford Prison Project and Abu Ghraib and Prisons Today o Roles o Dehumanization and moral disengagement o Deindividuation Changing external presentation can change behavior Stanford guard sunglasses and uniform Inmates no hair matching uniforms o Power Doing Time Video o Lewisburg prison o Inmates include spies kidnappers pornographers mafia leaders o Prisoners outnumber guards 6 1 guards have knives to protect themselves o No fist fights allowed o Prison within a prison solitary confinement cell block not a lot of air circulates through the cells Dehumanization and Moral Disengagement in Lab o Bandura research College students Study to help students from another college improve problem solving by punishing errors punishment electric shocks that increase in severity As part of this research you accidentally overhear the assistant complain to the experimenter that the other students seem like animals The Psychology of False Confessions o Central Park Jogger Case woman brutally raped in central park in 1989 o White well educated lots of media attention pressure to catch the offender o 5 teenagers were questioned and confessed o Later 2002 an imprisoned rapist confessed o Why confess to rape they didn t commit o Why did the police believe them False Confession Video o Katie Hamlin s body was found by a river o Police can lie to a suspect about the evidence and can lie about having evidencebrainwash the person being interrogated Robert Rocha finally says that he was there even though he wasn t arrested and charged with murder he wasn t even in the country the day Katie Hamlin was killed Saul Cassin Research False Confession involves 2 factors o 1 An authority figure insisting on guilt o 2 Police can lie to suspects about false evidence connecting them to a crime Subject is under intense pressure How can you judge accuracy of a confession o A confession is compelling evidence but caution is needed to avoid confirmation bias o Factors that increased the likelihood of coercion Age and competency Conditions of custody and interrogation o Are details consistent o Are their facts knowable only to offender o Consider the confession in its context not just a videotape obtained without prep Confirmation Bias at Work o Looked at information that confirmed theory that they committed the offenses o Ignored all the inconsistencies that suggested that they did not know important details of the offense Kassin s Article on Applying Psychology to Law Lessons to Remember o Stereotypes why believe o Reinforcement operant condition immediate rewards o Motivation deprivation food social needs o Social impact conformity obedience o Adolescence more compliant and suggestible o Memory malleable o Fundamental attribution error don t consider situation and other biases Starts with false belief that can tell if someone is lying o Interrogators told to consider Nonverbal cues Gaze aversion Frozen posture Slouching Anxious Unconcerned Guarded Even the innocent might start to believe the guilty o The Reid Technique of interrogation o Isolate in small bare sound proof room o Develop a theme of guilt o Interrupt expressions of innocence o Pressure then show sympathy o Offer a face saving explanation for crime o Increase anxiety associated with denial o Reduce the perception of negative consequences for confessing o innocents at risk trust the system The Social Psychology of Halloween and Protests o Deindividuation in a big group while wearing a costume o Dehumanization crowd sees police as not human or vice versa o Social roles o Social norms o Group think as a group people think it s a good idea to do something they wouldn t normally do such as burning a car Social Psychology of Protests nonviolent mindset Cooperation behavior by 2 individuals that leads to mutual benefit cooperation is risky The Prisoner s dilemma should I cooperate with someone else in confessing Hot Science The Eyes have it o Is the honor system enough for people to pay for their coffee o Posting pictures of human eyes above the coffee pot yielded greater honesty paying for the coffee o Mirrors in restaurants are helpful to get people to pay The Real World Making the Move o In speed dating experiment either men or women remained seated and were approached results showed that when men made the move women were choosier but when women made the move men were choosier o Approaching someone makes us eager and being approached makes us cautious